Usually, I start putting this list together early in the year. I add a few items maybe four or five times throughout the year. And then at the end, I make a push to finish out the list.
Not this time.
This time, I didn’t start until December 29.
Meagan helped me, combing through Facebook photos and Instagram to help job our memories on what actually happened this year.
I could remember a few – and I do mean just a few – of the big ones. The rest felt like a blur. I couldn’t remember if some of this happened in 2019 or 2018 or maybe even further in the past.
Once we got going, we came up with a full list of course. And, like always, I realized I have way more memories than I remember, way more reasons to be grateful.
As always, in no particular order, here are the rapid-fire memories from 2019:
- Coming home from work on September 17 to Meagan recording a video on her phone and asking me if I liked her new shirt. (It said, “Eating tacos for two.” That’s how she told me she was pregnant.)
- Making a whirlpool in the rectangular pool in Wisconsin with Zach, Ted, Meagan, Gage, and Lachlan
- Hiking down the Balancing Rock trail at Devil’s Lake Park in Wisconsin
- Painting our front door blue
- Opening the present on Christmas that revealed that we’re having a girl
- Hanging the world map on my wall in the new office at work
- Drinking the first Mt. Dew from the cooler at work
- Leading worship for the first time while Poppy was out that Sunday
- Leading worship on two songs after Poppy got back the next few weeks
- Getting rid of one thing every day in the month of February
- Taking lunches at work and tracking it on the Goal Tracker app
- Trying to use YNAB for budgeting in the beginning of the year and then switching to a homemade spreadsheet
- Working more hours in one week at Sonitrol than I ever had before, the week before Christmas (over 68 hours)
- Helping Gage build this table for his game day at school (he didn’t end up using that table)
- Scrubbing paint off our carport after the kids painted their names and hand prints on it
- Painting our living room light gray
- Painting our kitchen almost black
- Painting our doors almost black
- Having Sam and Jenna over for dinner before their wedding
- Dancing at Sam and Jenna’s wedding
- Going to Boom Bozz all dressed up with Meagan before Sam and Jenna’s wedding
- Meeting up with Bryce at Heine Bros. and talking about life coaching
- Texting Raquel after she moved to Mississippi
- Seeing the last Star Wars movie with Gage at 9:30pm the night before he left for his dad’s
- Creating a TikTok account for Hunchback Whale
- Visiting the new library with Meagan and Lachlan
- Attending a cooking class with Meagan, Gage, and Lachlan at the new library
- Enlisting Gage to start helping do the dishes at home
- Introducing new songs at Calvary Chapel
- Making new dishes with Meagan’s Instant Pot that she got for Christmas
- Buying ammo for Ken at Cabela’s
- Throwing Lachlan a space-themed birthday party when he turned two
- Hosting Thanksgiving at our house and trying Meagan’s jalapeno cranberry dip
- Eating the Nacho Party Pack from Taco Bell with Meagan, Ted, Raquel, and Zach
- Buying a knife with Zach on our trip to Wisconsin
- Trying fancy cheeses at the cheese place in Wisconsin
- Trying fancy cheeses that we brought back from Wisconsin with Pop and Momma and Zach
- Touring the capital building in Madison, Wisconsin
- Walking around the country’s largest farmers market in Madison, Wisconsin and eating cheesy, jalapeno bread and drinking fresh apple cider
- Touring the mustard museum in Madison, Wisonsin and trying a bunch of weird types of mustard
- Picking up a bunch of Jack-In-A-Box tacos as the first stop on the way to South Dakota
- Picking up a bunch of Jack-In-A-Box tacos with everyone on the trip to Wisconsin
- Black Friday shopping and buying a new white, button-down shirt
- Discovering the red-letter sequence in the beginning of Luke
- Camping with Sammy, Jeremiah, Ted, Zach, Meagan, Gage, and Lachlan
- Camping with the Reimers, the Hibmas, the Lopezes, Amber Delgado, Jess Perkins, Nikki and Alex, and Andrew.
- Rowing across Deam Lake by myself and reading a book in the middle of the lake
- Handing out hot dogs for the Calvary Chapel Halloween Harvest
- Going to the Crosby Middle School Fair
- Carving a pumpkin at home
- Going to the Middletown Police Halloween event with the fire truck, ambulance, and helicopter
- Watching Gage and Lachlan win second place at the Main Event Halloween Costume Contest
- Watching Kelvonte and Cameron
- Leaving the house at 2am for my surprise birthday trip that ended up in South Dakota, another state I’d never visited before
- Seeing Mt. Rushmore
- Hiking and climbing in the Badlands in South Dakota
- Walking around the water falls in Falls City, South Dakota
- Visiting a Calvary Chapel in South Dakota and arriving really early because we didn’t realize we were crossing another time zone
- Swimming at the Plainview Pool with our pool pass
- Watching a Bats baseball game with people from Springdale Community Church
- Spending a day at Panera Bread
- Swimming at the La Grange pool with the people from Springdale
- Going to the Reasonable Faith meetings with Bryce
- Hosting our Christmas in July party
- Going to the Nutcracker book reading with Lachlan and Meagan
- Putting together 18 stockings for foster kids
- Having Ambur and Stacie over for the weekend of July 4
- Going to the Oldham County Fair (Lachlan rode his first ride there)
- Eating at the Burger Boy restaurant after going to the planetarium
- Touring the Salato Wildlife Center in Frankfort, KY
- Eating at Hoggie’s Ice Cream and that other little restaurant that was on Diners, Drive-Ins, an Dives.
- Building the banquet bench
- Walking to the new Starbucks from our house
- Going to the Explorium in Lexington, KY for Juvenile Arthritis Day
- Going to the Hillsong concert at the Yum Center
- Hiking the Squire Boon Bottoms trail, the one with the yellow silo
- Leaving Lachlan over at Papa’s house for his first sleep over
- Attending the Sonitrol Christmas party at Dave and Buster’s
- Visiting the police station to recover our stolen drills and Sean’s tools
- Visiting the police station with Paulina to give out awards for Sonitrol
- Going into work at 4am to finish things out for the new year
- Trying to visit Santa with Lachlan at Cabela’s, but Lachlan didn’t want to have anything to do with Santa
- Visiting Woodrow when they got home from the hospital
- Announcing that Meagan was pregnant by giving out munchkin donuts
- Going to see the drive-thru, Christmas lights in Etown
- Visiting Lauren for her birthday and drinking her birthday present
- Burning tree wood in our backyard
- Getting the Volvo and the Dodge fixed in the same week
- Going to the ultrasound with Meagan and Lachlan
- Selling the doorbell camera on eBay
- Selling the dinosaurs on Facebook Marketplace
- Going to the hospital with Lachlan and him staying overnight
- Taking down our fence
- Getting my hair cut short
- Voting
- Watching Zombieland Double Tap with Meagan
- Doing the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich vs. Chick Fil A Sandwich Challenge
- Brought the toilet bowl light to the Calvary Chapel gift exchange
- Getting a box of peaches from The Peach Truck
- Getting professional photos made of our family
- Going to a Bats baseball game for Mother’s Day with Meagan
- Going to the Middletown Library to listen to Ann Dorzback tell her story about how she and her sister escaped Nazi Germany after Kristallnacht
- Swimming with Lachlan in his swim class
- Building a roller coaster with Gage and taking it to his Science Olympiad tournament
- Fixing our ceiling fan light that was broken for three years
- Going to Ikea, buying furniture, and eating their meatballs for Meagan’s birthday instead of touring the aquarium (because by the time we got there, we couldn’t get in)
- Climbing the rock walls with Zach and Gage at Climb NuLu
- Preaching about the Rich Young Ruler on June 30
- Playing music with my brothers on Easter at our house
- Playing the cajon for worship at Calvary Chapel
- Getting Camera’s hair cut with Shaun
- Watching Shaun try to touch the rim on the basketball goal at his barber’s house and his phone falling out of his pocket and breaking
- Getting rid of Lyndon when he suddenly decided he didn’t watch to come back to our house and started living under the neighbor’s car instead
- Celebrating with Meagan when she got REFIT certified
- Taking Meagan to the Brazilian steakhouse for her birthday
- Finding the salted dark chocolate Frappuccino at the gas station on the South Dakota trip
- Driving to Chattanooga, TN – and actually getting into Georgia in the process – for New Year’s Eve
- Hanging out with Sarah and Charles on New Year’s Eve from the online Unicorn group (we’d never met before)
- Learning how to play Azul
Happy New Year!
